Strengthening Connectivity with the Indo-Pacific: Proposals for the Development of Submarine Cables in Vietnam

Dr. Vu Hai Dang
East Sea Institute, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam
Translated and edited by NN, HD

In eight months throughout 2023, Internet users in Vietnam have reportedly faced great frustration due to slow and interrupted connections[1], caused by concurrent failures of all five submarine cables connecting to Vietnam.[2][3] With over 70 million users, one million tech application companies, and 70,000 digital businesses, these internet disruptions inherently inflicted substantial economic lost for Vietnam, and such phenomenon might even get worse given Vietnam's demand for international network traffic is expected to grow by 30-50% annually.[4] To address these challenges, Vietnam is planning to increase the number of submarine cables connected to the country, thereby reducing reliance on existing ones [5] and improving telecom stability and quality.[6]

According to the recently approved Information and Communications Infrastructure Master Plan for 2021-2030, Vision to 2050, Vietnam aims to develop a system of inter-province, inter-Asia and inter-economic zone cables, as well as 4 to 6 additional international submarine cables by 2030, bringing the total to 10. [7] These cables will serve domestic demands and help Vietnam meet the requirements to become a regional information center. The Master Plan also specifies landing points, and prioritizes connecting Vietnam’s islands. For example, it includes the establishment of a cable line which passes the Gulf of Thailand and connect the Ha Tien-Rach Gia-Ca Mau economic corridor with Phu Quoc Island and other major islands of Vietnam.[8] These cables will enable fast, large data transfer from Vietnam to other countries (data transfer capacity is anticipated to reach 60Tb/s in 2025) and reduce the burden on existing cables, thereby enhancing connection speed, network security and telecommunication quality.[9] To materialize these goals, Vietnam and Singapore recently agreed to build a VTS cable which directly connects the two countries, with landing points in Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia. This line is expected to be operational by mid-2027.[10]

Vietnam's waters are located in the center of the Indo-Pacific region. Geopolitically, this area can be translated as the sea between two oceans: the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. The region includes waters of Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Oceania [11], as well as approximately over 40 countries and territories[12], constituting an important part in the world's GDP and population.

This article will examine existing submarine cable systems in the Indo-Pacific region, assess the current state of undersea cable connections between Vietnam and the region and the world, and give several proposals for the development of Vietnam's international submarine cable lines.

Submarine cable lines in the Indo-Pacific region

According to TeleGeography's submarine fiber optic database[13], there are currently 222 submarine cable lines, or routes, that pass through parts or all of Indo-Pacific region (North Korea is the only coastal state in the region that is not connected to any lines). Among these, there are 64 multilateral connection lines (between three or more countries), 49 bilateral lines (between two countries), and 109 domestic lines (between locations within the same country). Some data centers also acts as landing points for regional submarine cable lines such as Singapore (the landing point of 31 lines), Mumbai (16 lines), Sydney (7 lines), and Hong Kong (2 lines).[14] In addition to Mumbai, Chennai in India is also being developed into data "crossroad" between the East and the West. Specifically, Colt Data Centre Services, a leading business in the field of large-scale data center development, is planning to expand its center in Ambattur, Chennai to provide infrastructure for industrial digitalization, cloud computing and AI operations.[15] Chennai is currently the landing point of 8 cable lines.[16]

Submarine fiber optic cable system in the Indo-Pacific Region

(Submarine Cable Map)

The current state of submarine fiber optic cable connection between Vietnam and the region and the world

According to TeleGeography,[17] Vietnam currently has five active submarine cable lines, including:

Asia Africa Europe-1-AAE-1: connecting France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Pakistan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and China;[18]
Asia-America Gateway Cable System-AAG: connecting the United States, Guam, the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand;[19]
Asia Pacific Gateway-APG: connecting Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand;[20]
Southeast Asia – Middle East – Western Europe – SeaMeWe-3: connecting UK, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, Macao, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea;[21]
Tata TGN-Intra Asia – TGN-IA: connecting Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, China.[22]

It is expected that by 2027, Vietnam will be part of the following three cable lines:

Asia Direct Cable - ADC (expected to operate in Q1 2024): connection between Japan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand;[23]
Asia Link Cable - ALC (expected to operate in Q3 2025): connecting China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore;[24]
Southeast Asia-Japan Cable 2 - SJC2: Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand;[25] and
VTS: Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore as mentioned above

Vietnam currently has three landing points: Da Nang (for ALC, SeaMeWe-3, and APG), Quy Nhon (SJC2, ADC), and Vung Tau (TGN-IA, AAG, and AAE-1), and there are three Vietnamese telecommunication corporations are participating in the underground cable industry, including: VNPT (in SJC 2, SeaMeWe-3, AAG, and AAE-1), Viettel (in ADC, APG, AAG, and AAE-1), and FPT (in ALC).

The abovementioned information has revealed some realities regarding submarine fiber optic cable connection that Vietnam should consider in submarine cable development planning, which are as follows:

The collaboration between Viettel and Singtel to construct a cable connecting Vietnam with Singapore indicates that Vietnam has changed its approach to undersea cables. In the past, Vietnam often prioritized connecting to long cable routes, with many landing points and parties involved to reduce investment costs. However, this approach is proved to be problematic as cable routes with many participants might overload, leading to slow data transmission, or even failures. They are also difficult to upgrade, and prone to geopolitical risks especially in the light of the US-China competition. As such, Vietnam might face great hardships in ensuring high-capacity, high-speed and secured connections. Therefore, Vietnam has become more active in connecting cables directly to data centers around the world, in line with the general development trend as the number of bilateral and regional cable lines is rapidly increasing.
Vietnam has a coastline of more than 3000 kilometers long stretching from North to South and 28 coastal provinces and cities, but the country does not have a submarine fiber optic cable to connect coastal provinces as well as near-shore islands. The construction of a coastal inter-provincial submarine cable line will thus help Vietnam strengthen inter-provincial connectivity, especially with Phu Quoc and other important islands, an object prescribed in the Information and Communication Infrastructure Master Plan for the period 2021 – 2030, Vision to 2050. The construction of domestic submarine cables has also been carried out by many countries, with 109 lines in the Indo-Pacific region as listed above.
There have been joint ventures between Vietnamese telecomnication enterprises, namely VNPT and Viettel, in developing submarine cable lines such as AAG and AAE-1. Such ventures can help improve the negotiating position, increase the contributions, and reduce investment costs of these enterprises.

Proposals for the development of Vietnam's submarine cable system

From the above analysis, the article gives some proposals for the development of Vietnam's submarine cable system in the upcoming time as follows:

a. Connecting with Sydney

As mentioned above, Sydney is an important data center in the world as well as a landing point for many lines in the Indo-Pacific region. However, as of now, Vietnam have yet to connect with Sydney via submarine cable. Therefore, the construction of such a line should be considered in the upcoming times.

There are two ways to achieve this. First, Vietnam should utilize existing cable routes which land in Sydney to save time and costs. As mentioned above, there are currently seven lines landing in Sydney including: Coral Sea Cable System, East Coast Cable System, Gondwana-1, Hawaiki, Hawaiki Nui, PIPE Pacific Cable-1, and Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth.[26] Among these lines, Hawaiki Nui has the closest landing points to Vietnam, located at the southernmost point in the South China Sea on the territory of Malaysia and Singapore. Thus, Vietnam can opt to connect to this cable route.

The second approach is investing to construct a line connecting to Sydney to increase activeness. The main axis of this fiber optic cable can go from the southernmost point of Vietnam through the Gulf of Thailand, Java Sea, Banda Sea, Arafura Sea, Coral Sea and finally Sydney. The sub-branches of this fiber optic cable can connect to Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia; countries in the Pacific such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonina; and New Zealand.

Proposed undersea cable line connecting Vietnam – Sydney

(Vu Hai Dang)

b. Connecting with Chennai

As mentioned, the Indian state of Chennai is being developed into a very important large-scale data center – a "crossroad" connecting East and West by 2027. Vietnam already has two underground cable connections with Mumbai (Asia Africa Europe-1 and SeaMeWe-3), but none with Chennai. Similar to Sydney, connecting fiber optic cables to Chennai can also be carried out in two ways: taking advantage of fiber optic cable routes that have landed in Chennai or investing in building fiber optic cables from Vietnam to Chennai. Regarding the first approach, the fiber optic cable lines currently land in Chennai are the Bay of Bengal, Chennai-Andaman & Nicolar Islands Cable, i2i Cable Network, India Asia Xpress, MIST, SeaMeWe-4, SeaMeWe-6, and Tata TGN-Tata Indicom. Among these, except for the Bay of Bengal and the Chennai-Andaman & Nicolar Islands Cable, all cable routes are connected to Singapore. Thus, Vietnam could utilize the construction of VTS by establishing an additional branch to connect to one or more of these fiber optic cable lines.

With the second approach, Vietnam can invest in building a new cable line with a main axis going from the southernmost point of Vietnam through the Riau Islands, the Strait of Malacca, the Adaman Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and finally Chennai. The sub-branches can connect to Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka.

Proposed undersea cable line connecting Vietnam – Chennai

(Vu Hai Dang)

c. Construction of domesitic submarine fiber optic cable lines running along the coast of Vietnam

Many countries in the region have built domestic submarine fiber optic cable lines to connect their continental territories with islands, and between islands and coastal localities such as the United States, Canada, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, Pacific Island countries, China and Japan. Vietnam should consider constructing a domestic line to connect 28 coastal provinces as well as important coastal islands such as Phu Quoc, Con Dao, and Van Don. We can utilize available infrastructure such as oil pipelines and power cables. There are many fiber optic cable lines in the world that were built using this method, such as the Sorsogon-Samar Submarine Fiber Optical Interconnection cable of the Philippines[27] which used to be a power cable line, or the PGASCOM line[28] connecting Indonesia and Singapore, which is attached to a gas pipeline.

d. Facilitating joint ventures between Vietnamese submarine fiber optic cable enterprises

Joint ventures between Vietnamese enterprises in the field of submarine cable are becoming a new trend. Particlulary, VNPT and Viettel have entered joint venture to develop AAG and AAE-1 cable lines. This trend should be encouraged to effectively utilize resources in the development of submarine fiber optic cables. Three Vietnamese submarine fiber optic cable enterprises (including FPT) should cooperate and participate in joint ventures to carry out new international fiber optic cable construction projects. However, Vietnam's competition authorities also need to closely monitor these cooperation and joint ventures to avoid monopolies and cartels, thus disrupting the market.

Conclusion

This article gives several proposals for the development of submarine fiber optic cables in Vietnam on the basis of analyizing the current state of submarine fiber optic cable systems in the Indo-Pacific region as well as Vietnam's connection with the region and the world. In short, Vietnam should consider participating in end-to-end submarine fiber optic cable routes connecting with Sydney and Chennai, build a domestic coastal fiber optic cable line, and facilitate joint ventures between Vietnamese enterprises.

REFERENCES:

Strengthening Connectivity with the Indo-Pacific: Proposals for the Development of Submarine Cables in Vietnam

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